This hearing might be a little too wonky for some, but not too many other policy issues touch 100% of American lives. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will be delivering testimony today outlining the 2020 trade policy agenda.
The testimony is before the House Ways and Means Committee, and will be livestreamed on the committee website [SEE HERE] and below at 10:00am ET from the Longworth House Office Building. USTR Lighthizer is the sole witness.
.
Lighthizer will also be testifying to the Senate Finance Committee at 3:00pm. [LINK]
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is testifying tomorrow at 10:00am to the House Ways and Means committee; later in the afternoon Ambassador Lighthizer will testify before the Senate Finance Committee.
The New York Times has received an advance copy of USTR Lighthizer’s opening statement, and the liberal publication is apoplectic the Trump administration plans to outline an even more aggressive stance toward the World Trade Organization (WTO).
According to the pearl-clutching Wall St. class, Lighthizer is going to inform congress of Trump/USTR plans to demand tariff reciprocity; and Lighthizer will indeed raise tariffs against any nation that continues to attempt one-sided benefit. [EU will go bananas]
One method to approach tariff inequality would be for the U.S. to lower the import value threshold for non-tariff exemptions. Currently the U.S. does not apply import duties to any product valued under $800. This is a great benefit to China, southeast Asia, and U.S. on-line retailers such as ebay and Amazon; however, the zero tariff threshold hurts U.S. manufacturers because China and other nations do not reciprocate.
It is anticipated that USTR Lighthizer will inform congress the U.S. will lower that import threshold to match the same value level applied by other nations. Obviously the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Wall Street multinationals will not like this approach.
In his opening monologue today Fox host Tucker Carlson took on the subject of Google and their control over 70% of all on-line advertising revenue. Within the very accurate segment, Carlson noted that Utah Senator Mike Lee is in charge of the antitrust subcommittee and yet does nothing, absolutely nothing, to stop the authoritarian demonetization and deplatforming action carried out through the monopoly Google holds.
No single issue will do more damage to the reelection efforts of President Trump than allowing Google to carry out their political agenda. However, that accepted, that’s also the motive for the Senate and DOJ to do nothing. This is a good, honest and painful segment:
Earlier today the DOJ filed a civil action [see pdf here] against former National Security Advisor John Bolton for refusing to comply with the classified intelligence review prior to publishing a book. [DOJ FILING LINK] Perpetual warmonger John Bolton worked as NSA to President Trump from April 2018 to September 2019.
Bolton was always an odd pick for National Security Advisor given his propensity to advance mid-east wars and advocacy for military strikes against North Korea.
…”On June 7, 2020, without Defendant giving any prior notice to the NSC, press reports revealed that Defendant and his publisher had resolved to release the book on June 23, without completing the pre-publication review process. Subsequent correspondence with Defendant’s attorney confirmed that public reporting.
Simply put, Defendant struck a bargain with the United States as a condition of his employment in one of the most sensitive and important national security positions in the United States Government and now wants to renege on that bargain by unilaterally deciding that the prepublication review process is complete and deciding for himself whether classified information should be made public.”… (pdf)
There is considerable conversation, on all sides of the issue, surrounding a 6-3 supreme court decision today recognizing “gay” and/or “transgender” persons as being protected by the 1964 civil rights act under the definition of “sex”. Factually, the decision authored by Judge Gorsuch writes those terms into the legislative definition; that’s a problem.
However, that said, for all practical purposes and intents, sexual orientation has been a protected employment category -as viewed by the Dept. of Labor and EEOC- since the mid-90’s. So some of the over-the-top exclamations, in both directions, are moot amid the world of practical application.
As to the issue of SCOTUS usurping the legislative responsibility for the practical wording of law, yes, this ruling is an issue, and Judge Alito is absolutely correct in all corners of his dissent. Justice Gorsuch has opened a can of worms for downstream consequences unrelated to employment eligibility; and a myriad of potential future cases based on gender orientation are likely to flow to the court; so the big picture is problematic.
All arguments surrounding the issue of SCOTUS writing legislation through the delivery of opinion are merited and worthy. However, on the specific application of ‘gender’ to employment eligibility, today’s ruling was already in place. Amy Howe has a good encapsulation at SCOTUS Blog:
“Today the Supreme Court, by a vote of 6-3, ruled that even if Congress may not have had discrimination based on sexual orientation or transgender status in mind when it enacted the landmark law over a half century ago, Title VII’s ban on discrimination protects gay, lesbian and transgender employees. Because fewer than half of the 50 states currently ban employment discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, today’s decision is a major victory for LGBT employees.”
Earlier today President Donald Trump participated in a roundtable discussion with various Administration officials to highlight their respective efforts to safeguard America’s senior citizens. Attendees include: Attorney General Bill Barr, HHS Secretary Alex Azar, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, HHS Administrator Seema Verma, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and Chief Gary Barksdale, U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).
AG Barr noted seniors are being targeted by internet scammers and gave examples of DOJ intervention. USPS Chief Barksdale noted similar activity using the postal service and highlighted USPS intervention and arrests. VA Secretary Wilkie noted efforts to combat COVID-19 amid senior veterans. There was also an extensive press availability.
[Video and Transcript Added]
[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Okay, thank you very much. Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, and we’re here to discuss our ironclad commitment to protecting and caring for America’s seniors.
We’re joined by Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson — who, by the way, was fantastic over the weekend in various interviews you did, Ben. Really good job, I appreciate it. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie, Administrator Seema Verma, Chief Postal Inspector of the United States Postal Inspection Service Gary Barksdale. And Gary has done a great job, especially with spotting drugs coming into our country. He’s done a fantastic job.
The U.S. media are in ideological alignment with blue state governors and congressional democrats to hype COVID-19 panic as a method to keep the economy from reopening. To advance this narrative the crowds during mass protects they approve of are ignored; but any crowd at an event they do not align with is used to push panic. Everyone can see this.
The New York manufacturing index shocked everyone earlier today showing a strong rebound. The index “unexpectedly” surged 48 points in June surprising all economic forecasters. Meanwhile, National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow appears on Fox News to discuss the dynamics.
.
As Kudlow notes, President Trump is looking to use any potential phase-4 legislative package to inject a massive ‘America First’ boost, via tax incentives for manufacturing business interests to return to the U.S. The administration does not see a need for additional direct spending, bailouts, or continued payments; however, this is an opportunity to provide tax incentives to boost U.S-centric economic activity.
It’s important to remember the dynamic of U.S. multinationals (Wall St), and how many of them align with Democrat and media efforts to hold down the U.S. economy. There are trillions at stake.
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss his committee investigation into what the U.S. intelligence apparatus was doing during the 2016 election, transition, and first two years of President Trump’s tenure in office.
It’s a good interview, and chairman Johnson outlines additional subpoenas that his committee is submitting to compel testimony and gain documents. However, it’s now mid-June 2020.
I’m reposting a prior research outline below because something odd is happening in the background of this story. I’m not sure what it is, but there are small -seemingly disconnected- issues surfacing, that might tie back to this much bigger and purposefully avoided story. I have learned to trust my instincts on this.
♦One – The FISA reauthorization legislation was dropped by Nancy Pelosi and all media conversation immediately vaporized.
♦Two – Crowdstrike is very concerned about this story every time it surfaces.
♦Three – If you understand the scale and scope of surveillance… does that explain the behavior of some people today [legislative (politicians), judiciary (judges), Pentagon (military)].
Are black files being used in 2020?
With the release of recent transcripts and the declassification of material from within the IG report on the Carter Page FISA, there is a common misconception about how the intelligence apparatus began investigating the Trump campaign. In this outline we hope to provide some deep source material that will explain the origin, and specifically why those inside the Intelligence Community began using Confidential Human Sources.
During the time-frame of December 2015 through April 2016 the NSA database was being exploited by contractors within the intelligence community doing unauthorized searches.
Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell discusses his prior approach toward declassifying documents behind the Obama administration’s efforts to disrupt the incoming Trump administration.
As Grenell notes the prior administration was politically focused on targeting Donald Trump and weaponizing the intelligence apparatus to disrupt the Trump administration. Grenell discusses the over-classification of documents as a tool to hide intentional wrongdoing and corrupt intent.
It’s worth noting the interview is heavily edited; which, given Ms. Bartiromo’s granular insight on the issues, may indicate some of the conversation extended beyond what would be comfortable for the current investigation to be seen in public. (Just a hunch).
